Daily Blog

Editor’s note: In celebration of Mother’s Day next week, we are honoring all mothers who do everything they can to give their children the awesome gift of bilingualism and biculturalism. We’ve invited several amazing mamás who are doing just that to tell us all about it in our Week of SpanglishBaby Moms. Each one of them brings a completely different look at bilingualism. All the moms are bloggers too and if you didn’t know about them before, I’m sure you’llRead More ...

Call me crazy but I decided to complicate my attempt to expose my baby to multiple languages by adding another element: baby sign. Maybe it’s not too surprising given my level of interest in teaching Sabrina three languages. I wanted to keep teaching her sign language as simple as possible because it seems that our lives are already a bit chaotic. I contemplated between using American Sign Language (ASL) versus Baby Sign because ASL is actually recognized as a languageRead More ...

This is Part 2 in a continuing series by Amy Conroy. To read Part 1 go here: One Family’s Total Immersion Adventure in Mexico. Some truths I’ve learned: A. Vacation Mexico is not the same as Living Mexico. B. Quaint, charming, ‘manana’ Mexico is different from Mexico 2011 with a family. C. Your children are your favorite people and most ingratiating part of you, i.e. your personal ambassador and ticket in. Some truths I’m coming to terms with: A. NoRead More ...

UPDATE: Due to the great response we’ve received, we’ve decided to extend the deadline to enter this contest by one week. Please click on the graphic above for updated information. Thanks for your support! For more than a year now both Ana and I have been trying to come up with a way in which SpanglishBaby could give back to the bilingual community we so wholeheartedly support. We always knew we wanted to make sure we incorporated bilingual literacy inRead More ...

It’s spring, which means it’s IEP season. My third one. Simply put, that means it’s time to get together with our special education team and discuss my children’s present level of performance in school, come up with annual goals for next year, and decide what special education services they will need. At the end of the process we will have an Individualized Education Program for each of them, a document that we will revisit periodically to check their progress. ThisRead More ...

Last week we posted the following question on our Facebook fan page: “What has been your biggest obstacle in raising a bilingual child?” Within minutes, we had tons of answers explaining all kinds of different obstacles. But soon it was clear which were the most prevalent (in no particular order): #1 You’re the only one who speaks Spanish at home (or the OPOL method is hard to do) I’ve always kind of silently envied those who use the OPOL methodRead More ...

As I mentioned in an older post, Marisol’s name is the source of some pronunciation issues for our friends and even family, sometimes. A few nights ago, Marisol did something about this that just made me so proud that I thought I should share. I was in the kitchen setting the table for dinner with a great friend of ours, when I heard Mari in the other room saying, “No, it’s Mah-ree-SOL. Mah-ree-SOL. It’s Mah-ree-SOL, Nathan.”  I ran in toRead More ...

(Photography by Julio S. Sandoval) Last week, we baptized my gorgeous boy, Santiago. Ana, who is my son’s godmother, and her beautiful family came to Denver from LA for the celebration. It was a lovely ceremony and the party afterward was fun and totally relaxed. I cooked arroz con pollo! Santiago wore a beautiful white guayabera his godfather brought from Mexicali. I was worried he’d cry or at least soltar un chillido when the water was poured on him. Instead,Read More ...